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March 8, 2009

Red Sox Battle Rays Again

Masterson pitched well (3-1-0-0-3) and Papelbon and Daniel Bard both struck out the side in their respective innings of work. Bot allowed two hits. Tazawa pitched two innings and struck out four; he also allowed two hits and a run. The Sox pitchers struck out 15 batters in the game.

Someone wearing Julio Lugo's uniform went 3-for-3 with two doubles, two RBI, and a walk.

***

The Red Sox committed six errors and allowed nine unearned runs Saturday afternoon in a 15-7 loss to the Rays. (Boston actually out-hit Tampa Bay in the game, 11-7.)

The AL East rivals play again today at 1 PM. Justin Masterson will start; Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard and Junichi Tazawa will also pitch.

Tim Wakefield threw 49 pitches over three innings and is already getting bored with the exhibition schedule:

I feel like I'm game-ready now. I don't think my pitch count would be Opening Day-ready. But it's not like I labored today. I felt like I could have gone at least one more [inning], maybe two. Once I get my pitch count up to about 95, I think from that point, we'll back it down to 70 right before the season starts and then we'll be ready. ...

My timing [with the knuckleball] seems to be better. I got a lot of swing-and-misses and three strikeouts, which is good. ... I'm happy with the way I felt.

Mike Lowell is scheduled to play (or DH, rather) on Tuesday, with an eye towards playing third on Friday the 13th against the Yankees. ... Alex Rodriguez has decided to undergo surgery on his torn right hip labrum Monday.

55 comments:

They have pitch count limits, but as far as it being "bad", who knows?

The WBC is a nice idea, but there is no good time to have the tournament. During spring training is problematic; so is after the World Series. The All-Star break is too short -- and teams would not want their best pitchers going off in mid-season to throw in exhibitions.

Tim, I'm with you on the WBC but it is cool to group players together based on what country they come from and see who can make up the better team and win a tournament. But I'm glad to see the the excitement. I'm just not a huge ZOMG USA USA USA type of person.

Does anybody happen to have two televisions I can use to hook up right here? Got the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox all on at the same time. Intermission for the Bruins, Celtics on the TV and Red Sox on the radio right now.

Does anybody happen to have two televisions I can use to hook up right here? Got the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox all on at the same time. Intermission for the Bruins, Celtics on the TV and Red Sox on the radio right now.

Haha, only reason I found out about the Red Sox is 'cause I saw the Bs game was going on so I turned on the TV and saw baseball!

I haven't gotten to watch many ST games so far, but Lugo genuinely looks like he's hitting the ball harder. That rbi single was the same sort of grounder he would've hit last year, but whereas it would've just been a little dribbler before, now it's hit sharply and goes through the hole into the outfield.

Boston Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester, who overcame cancer to become one of the best pitchers in the American League, has agreed to a five-year, $30 million contract extension with a $13 million team option in 2014, a source close to the team told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday.

The deal is contingent on Lester passing a physical Tuesday. The impending deal is the largest given to a pitcher with around two years of service time, doubling the four-year, $15 million deal Cleveland's Fausto Carmona signed at the beginning of last season. If the Red Sox exercise the option, they will have kept Lester off the free-agent market for two years.